Between Love and Hate: Imai's Story
by Sirius1Fan
Summary: This is the story of Imai and his love life. It includes other romances such as Kyo's, Eniwa's and maybe even Hamaya. Ratings might change in the future.
1. Kinoko High School

Ok, so I just read pretty much all the stories of Girl Got Game on this site and they're all really good. But most are based on Kyo- which makes sense considering she **IS** the main character of the series- but I though it would be nice to change it a bit and write about Imai. This story is not a Tsuyaka/ Imai pairing because I personally don't like that match (sorry to those that do), so I will have to make up a character for him. The story starts after Kyo defeats the team and gets to stay even though she is a girl, it's their first game(with the team knowing that Kyo is a girl).

**Warning:** I've only read up until the 3rd GGG volume and Imai doesn't appear very often in these volumes so I'm sorry if his character doesn't quite match, it's pretty much built from scratch(hey that rhymed).

**Disclaimer: **As much as it hurts me I DO NOT OWN Girl Got Game, and the characters, placesand events from the manga do not belong to me. The rest, however, is mine.

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**Kinoko High School**

Kyo slided through the recently waxed floor of the gym, reaching her annoyed teammates breathlessly.

"Kyo! Where were you? The game was supposed to start 10 minutes ago" questioned an annoyed Imai "You're lucky the other team is late".

"Sorry Imai. I was talking to the principal." Kyo answered in between gasps. "They didn't find out I'm a girl or anything like that" she explained when she saw her teammates worried faces. It had been 2 and a half weeks since the whole team had accepted her as a girl and they were constantly worried about someone else finding out her secret.

"Good" replied Hamaya letting out a breath.

"Ok" interrupted Imai, also looking relieved "I just got word about the team we're playing. They're from a posh school on the Far East side of town. They had a boys' team as well as a girls' team but them most of the girls on the team changed schools as well as a large number of the guys on the boys' team. Because of the lack of players they had to make up a new co-ed team, with both girls and boys. Apparently this combination helped them out a lot, because the boys' team used to suck (although I heard the girl's team was really good); now they managed to get here to play us on the semi-finals of the tournament so I want you all to play hard. I don't want you to take it easy on the girls on their team, play equally, just like we do with Kyo."

"What's the school?" Kyo asked, cheerily smiling at Imai's last comment.

"Kinoko High School" he answered.

The team started to break their circle but Chiharu stopped when he saw Kyo's face. "What's the matter Aizawa?" he asked, making the rest of the team stop to look at Kyo.

"Kinoko High School?" she asked disbelievingly.

"Yeah, why?" Imai asked concerned.

"That was my old school."

"Really? How do they play? Are they good?" Imai asked suddenly perking up.

When Kyo opened her mouth to answer the gymnasium doors swung open and the students and faculty on left benches of the gym turned to look noisily; the opposing team had arrived.

Imai stared at his team's opponent. At first glance he freaked out thinking that the large crowd of at least 36 kids was the team. It was only after staring again that he realized the team was only the 12 uniformed students, the rest appeared to be the team's supporters.

"Wow" he heard Hamaya say next to him "Usually nobody of the opposing team's school shows up for support". Imai silently agreed. Usually when other teams came to their school to play, very few people from their school showed up to give support. Usually it was no more than 6 to 10 people. He turned his head to look at Kyo, who seemed to be concentrated on her own thoughts.

Kyo stared at her old friends surprised. As she searched the crowd her eyes fell upon her best friends Meiko Harisami. She found her, dressed in the basketball uniform and standing in between Kyo's other two friends: Nikki Noruma and her Samantha Narita a.k.a. Sam. Memories of their time together flooded her head. Kyo had known Meiko since the second grade when Kyo had transferred to the posh school on a basketball scholarship. Because she was very aware of how poor she was in comparison to everyone else in her school Kyo turned unusually shy and eventually people though she was a snob instead of a nervous little girl. One day she was sitting alone on the benches near the basketball court when Meiko called out to her. Kyo looked up surprised.

"Hey you, the new girl! You're on the basket ball team right?" Kyo stared and nodded slowly.

"Stop eating then so we can play these to clowns two on two" the small brown-haired girl said, pointing at two boys that Kyo recognized as the best players on the boys team. Her love for basketball overcame all her shyness and Kyo quickly stood up to play with the loudmouthed girl.

The moment that the girl passed her the ball they connected. It was a connection that allowed them to play as if they had been playing together for years; a connection that Kyo never felt with anyone else except when she played with Eniwa -not even with Tsuyaka-senpai. From that day on they were best friends and because of that friendship, Kyo stopped being one of the school's outcasts and turned into one of its most liked girls in second grade. Meiko was even better than Kyo at basketball, and that was saying something. From that day on the girls trained daily together and helped improve each other's game. Meiko taught Kyo a lot of new tricks, including the one that became her signature move: her step ladder dunk. Later in 5th and 6th grade, the girls met Nikki and Sam and even Tsuyaka-senpai. All these girls were good at basketball(especially Tsuyaka) and quickly became good friends.

The day Kyo move away was a sad day for them and Meiko was the only one Kyo had told her father's wacky plan to. But now that the whole school was there and could recognize her,she had to tell them not to blab her secret!

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That's pretty much it for now.I know it's short but please tell me what you think of it so far.


	2. Let the games begin!

**Well, here it is! Chapter Two! The original chapter was longer than this but I decided to cut in half so I could update sooner. Sorry if it's to short! Enough stalling read on and please be sure to read my Author's Note at the end!**

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For once in her life, Kyo was worried before a game. However, it wasn't because of the game but more about her secret getting out. The million scenarios that could lead to her discovery played in her head, closely followed by the million and one consequences that could happen. Shaking her head she tried to compose herself, as a basketball player she knew she couldn't lose her cool when the odds were against her, if she did she'd only choke. She couldn't go over there and explain the situation to her friends herself, because she knew they would get excited upon seeing her and the guys would probably hug her like they would with her as a girl. She searched for Meiko, thinking that it might be easier if she just got her friends attention so she could realize what was happening and explain it to the team. Meiko (Mei) was too studying a piece of paper, which Kyo could only assume was her team's strategy. She could've done something to catch her attention but that would risk one of her friends spotting her. Panic rising Kyo searched for an excuse to get out of playing when an idea hit her. She turned quickly, scanning the Seisyu crowd for a sign of Tsuyaka-senpai. Kyo ran hurriedly through the crowd of girls that stood in her way trying to get an autograph to get to her friend.

"What's wrong?" Tsuyaka asked her out of breath friend worriedly.

"It's our old school" Kyo replied gasping-she seemed to be doing that a lot today- and pointing at the team stretching across the court "I'm playing against our old school".

"So?" Tsuyaka asked coolly.

"So! They'll see me and let it slip that I'm a girl! Tsuyaka you got to go down there and tell the team and anyone else that can recognize!"

Tsuyaka stared at her friend's pleading eyes for a few seconds before giving in. Straightening up she began to walk down to the other side of the gym, stopping only to pry Kyo off her, who had gratefully given her a bone breaking hug around the waist. When she reached the other side of the court she was greeted by friendly smiles that stuck on familiar faces. Before she could utter a word she engulfed in an avalanche of hugs. After she was released she explained the situation to her friends and scanned the crowd for anyone else it might be necessary to fill in. After a short spasm her friends understood the situation and agreed to be discreet. Tsuyaka was not so sure however, when they began to very indiscreetly search the team for Kyo and when one of the boys found her, he very "discreetly" pointed her out to everyone else, who in turn all waved to the very mortified girl.

While Kyo was unsuccessfully trying to hide behind the bench, Eniwa came up from her back and asked "Will they not say anything?"

She shook her head "No they won't say anything".

Eniwa looked like he was about to say something more when the buzzer rang, signaling the start of the game. Because she wasn't starting in the game Kyo took a seat at the bench and waited for Tsuyaka to approach her.

"I told the team and anyone in the crowd who could recognize you" she said when she arrived next to Kyo.

"You told everyone?"

"Don't worry. Only the team and about 7 people in that crowd can recognize you. The rest are first years at school; they are, apparently, Ryo's fan girls." Tsuyaka left a relieved Kyo and took her original sit in the bleacher, barking at two young girls who had taken her spot.

Kyo, meanwhile, turned to look at the other team's captain: Ryo Takinowa. She understood why he had a fan club. He was an extremely good looking guy plus he was rich, athletic and popular, making him a total prince charming. Ryo was actually one of the two clowns that she and Mei defeated when they played their first game together. Ryo and Meiko were like brother and sister and from 2nd grade to 5th grade, Kyo had had a crush on hi. Until the day that he and Mei caught him flirting with one girl whe ten minutes before he'd been asking another one out.

Luaghing happily next to Ryo was Shigure. As loud and womanizing as Ryo was, Shigure was the exact opposite. Considerate, funny and kind of shy around girls he didn't know as he was, Shigure was Ryo's best friend. Almost like a brother; they were the male equivalent of Mei and herself.

As she was lost in thought, Eniwa came up from behind her, making her jump a few feet in the air. "Do they know?" he asked, nodding his head at her friends' direction.

"Yeah, but don't worry about it, they won't tell."

He looked like he was about to say something, but before he could a loud whistle blew, signaling the start of the game.

Kyo wasn't starting so she took a seat in between Imai and Yura. She watched as Eniwa and Hamaya took their positions in the court along with thrSuzuki, Hatakeyama and Imura.

She looked at the other five players that were on the court and was relieved to see Meiko sitting at the bench. She wasn't happy, however, to see both Sam and Ryo on the court. They were bothe really good and could easily take Eniwa if they teamed up. Kyo was right. Fast into the first quarter they were losing 10 to 25.

With a little loud encouragement from Imai and Yura, their coach realized the danger his team was in and exchanged Hamaya for Yura. When the Seisyu team took the lead Knoko's coach send in Shigure as well as Nikki. Four of the best players on the team were playing. It wasn't long before they caught up with Eniwa and Yura. Kyo's coach made some more player exchanges on everyone except Yura and Eniwa, but she was still anxious. Finally Kinoko's coach sent in Meiko. Kyo knew perfectly well what would happen now; and she was right. It wasn't long before Meiko granted her team a 10 point lead. Kyo, who was watching Mei closely, could thell her friend was holding back. She suddenly heard her name being shouted and shook herself out of her reverie. The coach was signaling her to go in. as she stepped onto the court, she caught Mei's attention and saw her friend smirk. It was a whole new game now.

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Yura drank all the of the water in his container in one fast gulp. They had kept playing more than 4 quarters and had been playing for several hours straight, most of the crowd supporting the other team was gone and theirs was beginning to fade as well. To make everything worse both teams were still tied 60-60 and every single player on both teams looked absolutely exhausted, especially Kyo and that Meiko girl, number 12. he stared between the girl and Kyo in silent admiration. Before Kyo had set foot on the court, the girl had played well, but the second Kyo began to play, her game changed completely. It was like watching a battle between 2 female titans; even Kyo's game improved a notch or two. He stared as his sweaty teammates drank their water. Everyone was looking pale, everyone except Imai who hadn't played.

Imai was worried now. Since the start of the game he recognized that the other team was really good and that they would be hard to beat, but he'd thought that once his "dream team"(I know it's a stuid name but it's in Imai's head, no one needs to know about that), which consisted of Kyo, Eniwa and even Yura, got to play, the game would tilt in their favor. He didn't count on the other team also having a "dream team" as well. Between number 12(this is Meiko, for those that aren't paying attention) and the captain of the other team, they were more than good enough to keep up with his 3 best players.

He looked past the crowd, his eyes falling on number 12's face. This girl is basically the one keeping the other team together. he thought silently the captain of her team pretty much takes care of Yura, but it's that girl that's taking on the combination of Kyo and Eniwa, which I have to say is a pretty hard thing to do. I hate to admit it but, she's good.

The next quarter started again and Yura, Kyo, Eniwa, Hamaya and Suzuki hurried onto the court, closely followed by the other team. Five minutes into the game and they were losing by 20 points. Bothe teams were exhausted but while they seemed to wear out with every passing minute, the other team became more and more determined to win.

Kyo passed the ball to Eniwa with the little energy that they had left. Meiko ran past her and quickly intercepted the pass passing it forward to Sam, who scored. Kyo smirked knowingly; she was letting her game down and this was Mei's way of telling her to perk up. This is how it always had been with her friend. When they played together they were unstoppable but when they played against each other they were constantly straining in an unhealthy determination to defeat the other. It was unspoken agreement between the two of them; when the played against each other they had to give it their all. Unfortunately for her, Mei had more "all" than she did.

Suddenly the referee sounded his whistle signaling a time out. Surprised, Kyo watched as Suzuki left the court to be replaced by a serious looking Imai. The only time Kyo had seen Imai play was when he went one on one with her to determine whether she would stay on the team. She'd never seen him play at practice much less at a real game. A small smiled made it's way onto her tired face; Imai was good, really good. Plus he wasn't tired; they could still win this after all!

Ryo looked on worriedly as the opposing team's captain took his position on the court. He eyed the tall boy warily. He'd heard stories about Seisyu's team captain's exceptional abilities. It was too exaggerated to be true, he knew, but he also knew that very few people had ever seen him play, so he had no idea what to expect. After a few minutes of game play, his fears were justified. Imai was good, perhaps as good as Mei, and _that _was not good news. After Seisyu scored 10 points more, he asked for a time out and signaled his team into a huddle.

"This guy's too good for me to take" he panted "I'm sorry Mei but I'm gonna need you to cover him". Th girl called Mei just smiled at him fondly and answered "leave it to me". So he did.

Mei studied the tall player she was going to "cover". He was tall, with broad shoulders, long brown hair and chocolate brown eyes. He's kinda cute… she thought WHAT? Get the head out of the gutter Mei she scolded herself time to focus.

She stared at the tall captain once more, a tinge of blush creeping onto her cheeks So this is the famous Imai. The player whose game is as much a mystery as his personal life she stared on Well you can just call me detective Mei!. She repeated her thoughts in an inaudible whisper and shook her head in an amused way. "Kyo's right…I do make the lamest jokes". With a slight smile she positioned herself on the court. It was time to win the game and see if this Imai's reputation is all it's cut out to be...

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Hey! Hoped you liked it...if you did tell me about it, if you didn't tell me about it...how? Simple...**REVIW!**

**A/N: I want to fix some mistakes on the 1st chapter which is that Kyo is from aout of town, not another part of it. I won't correct the mistake, because it doesn't affect the plot and because...well I'm just too dan lazy. Also I'm sorry if this has a few grammar mistakes but my program cannot check the grammar, plus English is my second language(so I have 2 good excuses).**

**THANKS TO MY REVIEWERS...I DEDICATE THIS CHAPTER TO YOU!**

**PEACE7:** Where's the fun if there aren't some cliffhangers? Did you know that cliffhangers and killing off major characters is the way writers express their evil side? Well it is!

**monkeyguy:** First thing(1) cool nickname Second thing(2) you could try getting proffesional help for the rocker thing. Oh well! Who cares if you're crazy as long as you review? Thanks for reading.

**StrawberryEggs: **erm...the story is about Imai, not Hamaya. It starts talking about Kyo's past but that's because it is an important part of the story. The story IS mostly about Imai, but I will very much like to narrate from different characters' perspective. And thanks for pointing the town mistake out. I'm glad you are liking this story.

**A/N: ONE LAST NOTE!** I have now read up to the 6th volume and jumped on to the 9th and 10th volume, so now I have a better idea on what to write on the character. However, there will be changes like how the school doesn't know about Kyo...etc. Remember I wrote this when I'd read up until the 3rd volume, and if I change it now the whole plot will change...and I'm too lazy to do anything about it! A million thanks! READ AND REVIEW!


	3. Not so much of a victory

**I'm soooooo sorry for not updating sooner. It's just that things are happening in my country and my history teacher has decided to add those events to our pile of homework. Oh well, you don't have to listen to my grievances…you all have enough of your own I'm sure. Here's the next chappie….I just finished reading all the GGG volumes so the characters will probably be a little bit more accurate. I emphasize on a little bit...ENJOY!**

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The referee whistled and the game continued….again. Kyo, somehow, managed to take the ball from one of her teammates and quickly passed it to Imai. He went through the tired opposing team members like a knife through butter. Before anyone could register what was happening, he scored a basket.

Scowling slightly, Mei arrived over to the other side of the court where the tall brown haired captain was about to make another shot. Mei ran at full speed towards the figure. She jumped off the ground, landing on his face, hard. While Imai tried to register the reason for the sharp pain in his face, Mei took the ball from his grasp and dunked it forcefully.

When a sore-faced Imai realized what had happened he scowled deeply. He'd managed not to fall on the ground but instead he rubbed his nose angrily, which was red with blood. He glared at the girls responsible for his pain. If there was one thing Imai hated about himself was his ability to intimidate his opponents without even trying (it made it too easy to beat them and Imai liked a challenge), but this time he was actually going to enjoy his ability. He was surprised stupid, however, when the girl he was glaring at simply stared back, smirked and then winked before turning around. Imai turned purple. For some reason this girl was being very successful at pissing him off!

The other team had possession of the ball. Imai changed this by ripping the ball right out of Ryo's (team captain) grip. Halfway to the basket he shot a three pointer and scored. This time it was he who smirked at the annoying chick. She looked furious, Imai was happy. After that, the game was a blur. It stopped being a game and became a personal grudge match between Mei and Imai.

Eniwa called for a time out. As the team gathered in a huddle he hissed angrily at Imai "What is going on between you and player #7?"

"She just pisses me off ok?" Imai snapped angrily.

Kyo blinked. She'd never seen Imai loose his cool before, much less swear. Leave it to Mei to piss a mellow guy out she thought to herself.

"Well" Yura stated "we're tied and there are 20 seconds left on the buzzer, and none of us wants to go on overtime". The rest of the team murmured in agreement.

"All right" nodded Imai while rubbing his left arm "I'll do my signature dunk".

"Your what?" Kyo asked puzzled.

"His super cool unstoppable signature move/dunk. Up until this day no one has ever been able to block it yet" Hamaya answered her, looking as if he was about to wet himself.

"Really?" Kyo asked both impressed and worried about Hamaya.

"Yeah…" to Kyo's surprise it was Eniwa who said this.

"Yeah" he repeated, "that could work".

"Ok" Yura said somewhat skeptical "let's win this" (ok so Yura sounds a bit cliché… get over it, he's hard to characterize).

The team left the huddle and marched onto the court with sober expressions. Kyo could almost hear the song **Here comes the boom** playing in her head.

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Ryo hadn't said anything but Mei knew winning the game was up to her. The whistle blew (too quick for her liking) and she watched on as Imai ran towards the basket; she an after him. Watching him closely she realized he was going to try a dunk. What kind of dunk it was exactly, she didn't know.

She was after him, still watching. As he jumped she got an idea of what he was going to do, it surprised her that he would make such a strange move. She jumped in front of him, twisting her backside to stop his attempt at a dunk. He recoiled; surprised she'd managed to block him. As she ripped the ball from his hands in a less-than-lady-like fashion, he fell on the ground hard, watching on as she made the dunk he was supposed to make.

He saw her smile as the scoreboard added points to her team and his blood boiled. He barely saw his teammates' worried faces. There were merely a few seconds left and the stupid bitch was about to score again!

He stood up at top speed as she jumped; he jumped too. BAM! he slammed right into her side making her crash hard on the wooden floor. He dunked and landed n his feet. The buzzer rang and Imai was suffocated under the pile of teammates that had piled on top of him. They had won! But it didn't feel like a victory to Imai. Someone he didn't like, someone he didn't KNOW had blocked his unblockable block. Imai wasn't stupid or conceited, he knew that eventually someone would have to be able to block that shot but he'd always imagine that person to be someone he liked (as in a friend or something) or at least someone he admired but NO someone he dislike, scratch that, someone he HATED had blocked his unblockable dunk! Pissed didn't even begin to cover it.

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Ryo rushed down to Mei, with a worried look on his face. She'd fallen down pretty hard. He helped her up. "Sorry" was the first thing she mumbled, her head looking down at the floor, causing her hair to cover her face.

"Hey don't apologize. You played awesome. It's not your fault if that guy was well rested and you were worn out".

She looked up and grinned. Ryo's eyes widened in shock..."THAT SON OF A BITCH!" He made out to kill Imai but was stopped by Mei, who had always been freakishly strong.

"Stop it Ryo" she scolded him.

"But look at what he did to you!" he pointed his finger at her right cheek that was bruised and turning slightly purple.

"Don't point!" she hissed pushing his hand away. It's no big deal" he opened his mouth to say something but she kept going "All's fair in love, war and basketball, remember?"

He smiled slightly. How could he not remember? It was what she'd said to him after they'd first played together. It was before either of them had met Kyo or Shigure. He'd played with her at the basketball court in his father's Country Club (yep! They're rich…betcha you didn't see that coming!). She had beaten him good and ashamed he'd screamed "How did you beat me? You're a girl! It's not fair!"

She'd just stared at him and replied with a slight smirk that was very frightening in the face of such a little girl, "All's fair in love, war and basketball". (A/N—Just to be clear I myself don't agree with the original quote of this quote--- life itself isn't fair and love and war are by definition unfair). After that they were best friends and it was the two of them who eventually recruited was is known as "the gang". He'd met Shigure a year after he met Mei, who had met Kyo a year after he'd met Shigure (two years after Mei and Ryo met...in case you weren't following). Then they all met Damian, Sam, Hatsuro, Nikki and of course Tsuyaka-senpai. The later wasn't officially part of the gang since she was a year older than them and had her own friends. She filled most of the characteristics a member of the gang should have. Most of them were rich (except Kyo, Tsuyaka and Nikki), they were all a bit loud and annoying (like Kyo) but most importantly they all LOVED basketball. They had other friends of course but this was a close circle, especially Mei, Ryo, Kyo and Shigure, who had known each other the longest. After Kyo moved and switched schools, however, they had all started to sorta drift apart, they had all started to hang out with different people. They were all on the team and they still had that one bond in common: basketball. (A/N: most of "the gang" won't be appearing much in the story but it's important for them to be mentioned...you'll see why...unless I change the story...then you'll have to wonder forever! hahaha).

"Come on now captain. We must congratulate the winners" she grinned.

"Fine" Ryo grumbled "I **hate **sportsmanship". Mei laughed.

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That's about it…for now. I'm glad that game is over with; it was a pain to write I'll tell you that. I don't know **how **J.K.Rowling manages to make all those quidditch scenes so interesting….I much prefer dialogue.

Please **Read and Review!** You know what I like and if you don't here's a hint: _compliments._


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